


On The Other Branch Of The Family Tree

by Mighty_Meerkat



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Autistic Original Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Choking, Dysfunctional Family, Family Drama, Family Legacies, Fanon Holiday, Gen, Light Swearing, Light profanity, Minor Violence, Original Character(s), Sister-Sister Relationship, briefly mentioned, takes place shortly after ep 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 15:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8291246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mighty_Meerkat/pseuds/Mighty_Meerkat
Summary: The celebration of Amidala Day brings up ghosts for the shattered Naberrie family - both metaphorical and literal.





	

The Theed Royal Archives are cold tonight.

Blue fireworks shimmer and shine across the skies, a familiar lilting tune is hummed and roared across the city, but inside is quiet, and dark, and empty.

Apart from the ghosts. Well, the metaphorical ones, anyway.

The young woman’s blaster fires up a grappling hook, and she’s in through an open window. The silver details on her uniform coat and headband briefly turn blue in the light, but she walks further into the darkness until they are lit up again by the turquoise of an archive screen. She hesitates, and types the name. _Padmé Amidala_. Images and essays and treatises flash up on the screen and Kynora Naberrie, Handmaiden Of The Water-Queen, settles in for a good night’s reading.

“You do this every Amidala Day, ‘Nora, it’s not that hard to track you.” Kynora spins out of the chair to take a good look at her little sister. Brown eyes stare out from underneath the glowing goggles in that same awkward way they always have done. Kynora thinks it’s funny, in a way, that for all the arguing with her mother, all the severed ties, all the blaster practice, she’ll never really be as much of a rebel to the Naberrie family legacy as the socially-impaired scientist in plain, practical clothes.

“Shiraya’s mercy, Hope, you’ve finally gotten taller than me.”

Hope grins, and for a moment they could be normal sisters celebrating a holiday together. Time to break the spell, Kynora thinks.

“You can tell Mama I’m still not coming home - I’m assuming that’s why you’ve come” she says, bluntly.

Hope’s smile is gone in an instant - “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not here to be a negotiator between two stubborn shaaks, _Kynora_.”

“Oh Force, I could practically write an essay on that name”, Kynora sighs, “I mean, why name your daughter something that means ‘spirit of the lake’ and then get annoyed when she follows her great-aunt’s legacy? Well, some bits of that legacy just aren’t as respectable and peaceful as you’d like them to be.”

“Mama was a refugee, you kriffwit!” Hope yells, shifting her stance to something more combative, “She shot stormtroopers and sold their armour to buy food for the day! She clawed her way up from the shadows so we could come back home, not so you could pfassk about with a blaster pretending you’re a Resistance member, because let’s remember: General Organa won’t let any of us in! She knows we’ve died enough for her family, and I respect that.”

“Trust me, Hope, I’m fine with that,”, Kynora smirks, “I’ll fight those First Order bastards just great without the Skywalkers, and if our _cousin_ ” she snarled the word “If he dares to show his face around me, I certainly won’t be showing him any of that precious _redeeming love_! But it’s people like Mama, who stick their heads in the sand and pretend there’s no trouble any more that lead to the destruction of an entire. Kriffing. Star system.”

“Look, I think Mama could have done more too,” Hope backs off slightly , “But to say that - oh Force preserve us…” she breathes, as the screen she’s been holding - Kynora recognizes it as a midichlorian counter - goes absolutely haywire.

“I really wasn’t who you were coming here for, was I?” Kynora says nervously.

There are ghosts abroad tonight, and not just the metaphorical ones. Like most scientists, Hope doesn’t really follow her family religion, so the curse she’s spitting out now - calling on Shiraya to ward off evil spirits - is done out of pure spite. The gloves she wears spark up with the bright white energy bolts she uses to handle dangerously midichlorian-rich objects, and she crouches slightly, like a cornered animal.

Anakin Skywalker - or what remains of him - appears from seemingly nowhere, and Hope shrieks the last words of the curse, splaying her hands to release the energy at him. The blast knocks him off his feet, and the wind rushes past a reluctantly impressed Kynora’s ears. That’s when he gets up from the ground and both sisters see the black durasteel creep over his face slowly, and hear the hollow breathing that haunts their mother’s dreams. His eyes, glaring at Hope, flicker blue-yellow-blue-yellow, and as he raises his hand, she lifts from the floor and feels her throat constrict. Kynora tears her eyes away from the terrifying sight of her sister, her feet kicking vainly against the air, and focuses her blaster.

“Do you really think that’s going to have any effect on me, girl?” the two voices say in horrible unison.

“I see memories don’t mean as much as you’d like people to think, great-uncle” Kynora retorts bitterly. It’s enough. The mask retreats, and Hope drops to the floor, shaken but not hurt, even faster than his head bows to the ground.

“Forgive me,” he whispers, “It’s been over fifty years since I last slept…since I last saw her.”

Kynora and Hope Naberrie exchange a look. Kynora is wordlessly appointed spokeswoman, as the older sister, and the one with the words.

“Maybe”, she says “But first, we’re going to do something very dear to our great-aunt. We’re going to have a talk.”

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by the thoughts of tumblr users 'ifitgivesyoujoy', 'the-negotiator', and 'kyraneko' on what Padme Naberrie Amidala's cultural legacy might be. I chose to focus a little more narrowly on what it might be like for the Naberrie family, living in such a shadow. Kynora and Hope are the (non-canon) daughters of Padme's niece Pooja, and I might write more about their potential adventures/dealings with Anakin, if I ever get the time. So, probably never. Still, I made them on Azalea's Dolls.


End file.
